Klopp about training earlier
“Would you go to prison today”
04/24/2025 – 07:24 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Jürgen Klopp celebrated all successes as a trainer. He started as a player. Now he remembers questionable training methods.
When Jürgen Klopp thinks of his beginnings as a footballer, not only good memories come up. Athletic training from his youth in particular is still shaking a head at today’s “Head of Global Soccer” by Red Bull. In a panel discussion in the Leipzig Arena, the 57-year-old spoke openly about extreme training methods of earlier days.
Klopp described that at that time you didn’t get any drinks in high heat. “For the athletics training from back then you would go to prison today,” he said. At 40 degrees, he and his teammates were given salt tablets and expects them to be completely spent.
Klopp started his football career at SV Glatten in the northern Black Forest. There he noticed early on as a scorer – his nickname was “the long”. Later he switched to TuS Ergenzingen 30 kilometers away. Walter Baur, his trainer at the time, remembered that Klopp made the wish early on to become a professional.
Other stations of his active career were the 1st FC Pforzheim and several clubs in Frankfurt-including Eintracht Frankfurt (amateurs), Viktoria Sindlingen and Rot-Weiss Frankfurt. In 1990 his path led to FSV Mainz 05. Klopp not only stayed there as a player, but also started his coaching career. In 2004 he and Mainz achieved the first promotion to the Bundesliga.
This was followed by a successful section at Borussia Dortmund, with two championship titles and winning the DFB Cup. After nine years at Liverpool FC and winning the Champions League, Klopp voluntarily said goodbye to the coaching bank.
Klopp has been working as a “Head of Global Soccer” at Red Bull since January 1st. In this role, he is responsible for the group’s football area worldwide. He ruled out a return to the coaching bank. His contract runs until 2029.